A COUNCILLOR has questioned whether Coventry City Council has breached its own policy by allowing a circus with performing animals.

Zippo’s Circus has being staging its HorsePower show since Thursday on the council-owned Hearsall Common, using performing horses as part of the act.

Coventry South MP Jim Cunningham was among MPs in June voting to back a ban on circuses using wild animals, and new regulations are being considered by the government.

While the debate has focused on wild animals including elephants and big cats, one animal pressure group is calling for a ban on the circus using horses.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is concerned that Zippo’s horses suffer stress through long travelling periods, high intensity training and performing in a frightening environment to audiences with bright lights and music.

Coventry city councillor Bally Singh (Labour, Whoberley) said: “I understood our own council policy to be against using council owned land for performing animals, and I am concerned this policy is being broken with Zippos HorsePower circus show currently being staged.”

A number of local authorities in the UK have introduced a ban on council-owned land.

A Coventry City Council spokesman said: “We don’t allow events on our land that use wild animals.

“Where the animals being used are working animals like horses or dogs we will take it on a case by case basis, making sure especially that the organiser has an animal welfare policy in place. “We visited the site with a representative from The British Horse Society who checked the horses all over and had no concerns regarding their welfare or performance.”

Zippo’s circus says its shows have twice been voted Britain’s best. Horses and ponies are used by Yasmine Smart, grand-daughter of circus legend Billy Smart. It also features “the other sort of horsepower” with motorcycle stunts, and acrobats.

A PETA spokeswoman said: “Zippos…forces animals to endure the stress of intensive training, travel, confinement and loud, frightening noises and bright lights instead of allowing them to live a real and natural life.

“Horses are also high-strung, nervous and easily spooked, posing a risk of injury to themselves, the audience and members of the cast and crew.”

She said branding the show Horsepower was “embarrassingly outdated”.

An RSPCA spokeswoman said the ban on wild animals it is seeking would not include domesticated horses.

But it also has some concerns about the treatment of all circus animals, particularly when travelling.

She said the former Labour government was committed to introducing a ban on certain non-domesticated species in travelling circuses.

More than 90 per cent of people responding to a public consultation last year had called for a complete ban on all wild animals.

Zippo’s Circus spokesman Chris Barltrop said the RSPCA had been “full of praise” for the circus’s care of horses – in line with the British Horse Society’s code of conduct.

He said the horses had been able to exercise on Hearsall Common and were transported in the best possible conditions for short distances, of about two hours once a week. He said criticism had mainly come from an extreme animal rights group.